Finding the List of Countries

The article states that the list of countries is 195 countries. The US Department of State lists 203 different countries (204 if you count East Timor and Timor-Leste separately). What’s really infuriating about this list is that it doesn’t even contain the United States.

I guess 193 is close enough to 195 and 185 is close enough to 182, plus the fact the US is on this list, so we’ll use this list.

Going French

French for “United States of America” is “États-Unis d’Amérique.” So if we use the French language in our list, the United States, er, I mean, États-Unis becomes number 58 alphabetically:

position

country

56

Eritrea

57

Estonia

58

États-Unis d’Amérique

59

Ethiopia

60

Fiji

However, with the advent of Freedom Fries, some people might not be too keen on using the French language to name the country.

Repositioning Words

You know how in certain lists, certain parts of the title are out of order? For instance, “Great Gatsby, The.” The list already does that with Iran, calling it “Iran (Islamic Republic of).”

So let’s refer to this great country as “America, United States of.” Now we’re getting someplace - number four alphabetically:

position

country

1

Afghanistan

2

Albania

3

Algeria

4

America, United States of

5

Andorra

6

Angola

Now what?

Currently, Afghanistan is number one. To get to number one, we have to somehow put a letter that comes before “f” after the first “A” - so that means either a, b, c, d, or e. We could try replacing the “m”:

Aaerica, Aberica, Acerica, Aderica, Aerica.

None of these make sense. Okay, let’s inserting between the “A” and “m”:

Aamerica, Abmerica, Acmerica, Admerica, Aemerica

Honestly, I prefer “Aamerica, United States of” or even “A America, United States of.” We can’t call it just America, though, or people might think we’re the Americas.

I am Joe. I'm one of many Joes, but I am uniquely me. I'm the messiest organized guy you'll ever meet. My glasses are always bent and my hair always a mess. I've never had a role model and as such am my own person. Scientist, programmer, Christian, libertarian, and life long learner.